body odour versus cheddar cheese

[piranha]

this is very interesting; i'll need to get ahold of this paper: "Cognitive Modulation of Olfactory Processing," by Ivan E. deAraujo et al., in Neuron 46:671-679 -- May 19, 2005.

summary:

We showed how cognitive, semantic information modulates olfactory representation in the brain by providing a visual word descriptor, 'cheddar cheese' or 'body odor,' during the delivery of a test odor ... and also during the delivery of clean air. Clean air labeled 'air' was used as a control. Subjects rated the affective value of the test odor as significantly more unpleasant when labeled 'body odor' than when labeled 'cheddar cheese.' In an event-related fMRI design we showed that the rostral anterior cingulate cortext (ACC)/medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) was significantly more activated by the test stimulus and by clean air when labeled 'cheddar cheese' than when labeled 'body odor,' and the activations were correlated with the pleasantness ratings. This cognitive modulation was also found for the test odor (but not for the clean air) in the amygdala bilaterally.

this might explain part of why i feel hygienically at odds with much of america, which i've wondered about occasionally, being as my sense of smell is not underdeveloped -- i never got the linguistic indoctrination about "body odour = bad".

via ozarque.

Comments

Re: body odour versus cheddar cheese

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

huh. the gym bit is interesting -- i wonder what could cause that, since it's mostly the same type of exertion as physical labour. stale sweat on people and in clothes, that smells not so good to me. also, certain body parts when unwashed for a while smell extra unpleasant -- the groin area is one of those. but normal body odour (a range that includes fresh sweat) smells much better to me than most hygiene products.

i can smell certain physical conditions about people -- ketosis is a pretty obvious one (all those people on atkins' induction phase smell distinctly different to me, *heh*). i don't know, of course, what most of the smells are -- it's not like i'd be quite uncouth enough to walk up to somebody and inquire, even though, dammit, i want to. :) what i do know i learned from friends, and when working in hospitals, but in general there it's rather harder to tell individual smells because of the overpowering "hospital smells".

Re: body odour versus cheddar cheese

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

A theory: Possibly the smell is different in the gym because some people are doing very intense exercise into the anaerobic stage. That would change what they are metabolising for energy and that might have an effect on the pH of the sweat or the specific toxins that it contains.

Sorry for all the comments, but this is really interesting.

Re: body odour versus cheddar cheese

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

I'm another who is fascinated by smell and I wish it was more socially acceptable to talk about. On the other hand, the whole social taboo around it fascinates me too.